San Marelston Anime Convention
by Cosette Belmont
Summary: The Elric brothers are supposed to make a guest appearance at the San Marelston Anime Convention, and let me tell you, nothing goes as planned...


I was bored during class, and all of my homework assignments were completed, so I decided to start this story about Ed and Al attending an anime convention. I'll probably come back on later and edit it to make more sense. More chapters will be added later. Thanks for reading!

By the way, the city of San Marelston in California, Sam, Shane, and Mrs. Austin are made up and (C) me. Please don't use them without my permission.

* * *

"The place is gonna be packed full of dang fangirls." Ed shuttered at the thought. 

"Oh, it won't be so bad, Brother," Al said reassuringly. "We're just going to be helping with the opening ceremony and a few other events."

"Great," Ed moaned. He slouched back in the leather taxi seat.

"But Fullmetal Alchemist is such a popular series, Brother! There are bound to be lots of people cosplaying as the characters. They'll probably think we're just normal cosplayers."

"Yah, until they announce us onstage and have us demonstrate alchemy for them," Ed moaned.

"I doubt they'll believe that we're real. After all, Brother, alchemy on this side of the gate is near impossible."

"What are we gonna show them, Al? I still haven't decided what I'm going to do yet."

"They didn't say. I'm sure they'll tell us when we get there, though."

"You're right, Al. I guess we can't do too much about that right now." With a sigh, Ed peered over the taxi driver's shoulder. There was the convention center. There were only a few people lingering around the entrance to the building, despite the fact that it was an hour before the anime convention started.

The car halted to a stop in front of the San Marelston, California Convention Center.

The taxi driver leaned back and put an arm on the back of his seat. "Okay, kids. Here ya are. That'll be $95.75 for the taxi ride."

Ed grimaced at the mention of the price number. Al probably would have to, if his soul weren't currently trapped in a huge suit of armor and he had a real face to grimace _with_.

"Uhh, here." Ed handed the man the few sens he had in his pocket. Before the taxi driver was able to utter another word, the Elric brothers had taken off at an incredible speed. They could have left the Olympic track teams in the dust.

The elderly man let out an exasperated sigh. "Dang kids these days... HEY! This currency's not even in U.S. money!"

* * *

As Ed and Al soon discovered, the people hanging out around the convention center were hardcore fans of Fullmetal Alchemist. Their outfits were completely accurate, with all the little details included in the outfits.

Ed shivered. He thought it was kind of creepy that people would want to dress up exactly like him and his friends. "Let's see if we can sneak past them," he said quietly.

"Okay, Brother," whispered Al.

The brothers snuck behind a row of bushes and tiptoed along quietly. That is, except for the clanking of Al's armor against the pavement as he walked.

"You hear some clanking noise?" they heard someone ask.

"Yah," another voice responded. "Let's see what it is. After all, we've got about an hour 'till the anime con starts."

The brothers froze dead in their tracks, their eyes expanding to the size of half-dollars. They slowly craned their heads around to see a small group of Fullmetal Alchemist cosplayers.

Ed muttered a curse word under his breath.

"Dude!" one of the cosplayers exclaimed. He was cosplaying as Roy Mustang. "Your costumes are awesome! What's the material you made the coat from?" He began to inspect, feel, and sniff the cloth of Ed's coat.

Ed's face burned a scarlet red with anger. "Hey! Stop it!" He swatted the Roy cosplayer's hands away.

"Is this real metal?" asked a girl dressed as Winry, pointing at Alphonse's armor.

Al nodded slowly.

"This is totally cool!" said the Roy cosplayer, now looking at other aspects of Ed's 'costume'. "His hair's the exact shade of blonde, and he's got gold contacts! He's even short, just like Ed from the anime and manga!" The Roy cosplayer smiled and laughed, but he should have known better than to tell that to Ed. The _real_ Edward Elric.

"WHO ARE YOU CALLING SO SHORT HE CAN'T BE SQUISHED WITH THE GROOVES OF THE UNDERSIDE OF YOUR SHOE?!?" Ed began to go berserk, all the while ranting on about his shortness. He repeatedly smacked the Roy cosplayer violently on the head with _both_ his real and automail arm.

"Um, Brother!" Al cried, a bead of sweat forming on his upper brow (if that was possible for a suit of armor).

"Hey, there you guys are!" A girl in her mid teens pushed the door opened and rushed out. She was cosplaying as Rukia Kuchiki in shihakusho uniform from the anime Bleach. "Ed, Al, we've been waiting for you for quite a while now. I know you guys want to talk to your fans right now, but we've got to go get ready for the opening ceremony. Come on."

"Thank god," sighed Ed in relief. He and Al were dragged along inside the convention center, down numerous hallways and corridors. Finally, they reached the place where the opening ceremony was to be held.

"This place is pretty big," Ed observed. "How many people are going to be here?"

"Hmm, probably around 5,100 people. We're getting so many attendees, we have to limit the amount of people who can come."

"Wow. That's a lot of people who are going to be watching us," Al commented thoughtfully.

Ed, on the other hand, looked a tad nervous, but quickly shook it off.

"A lot of people thought we should have you guys at the opening ceremony of the San Marelston Con, as well as in a few other events."

"What _kind_ of '_other events_' are we going to be participating in?" Ed asked, cocking an eyebrow.

"I'll tell you later. Oh, I don't think I told you my name yet, have I?"

They shook their heads.

"I'm sorry, how rude of me! I'm Samantha, but you can call me Sam."

"So, how come you're working here, Sam?" Ed asked. "You look a little young..."

"Nah." Sam waved a hand in the air. "My mom's volunteering to help out with the anime convention, too, so it's fine. You better watch out for her, though... She's a really big fan of yours. She's got posters of you plastered on the walls of our house like wallpaper; she's got binders of you, stickers, pencils, hair accessories... Mom even has _decals_ of you on her _car_. And her license plate says 'ILuvEd'."

Ed scrunched up his nose in disgust and just kind of stood there, blinking. "That's just plain _creepy_."

"Tell me about it," Sam sighed. "And I have to _live_ with her. It's so embarrassing...! People always stare at her and say she should be taken to the nuthouse." She felt her face redden. "So if you see her, hide quickly, or she'll be pestering you 24/7."

"What does she look like?" Al asked.

"Sam, honey! Where did you get off to now? Hello? Are the Elric brothers here yet? Samantha?"

"That's my mom." Sam jerked a thumb at the middle-aged woman walking into the room. "Hide before she sees you!"

"Where?"

"Go behind the curtain or something!" Sam shoved Ed and Al behind a stage curtain, then pretended to be helping get the equipment and such ready for the convention.

"Sam! There you are. I was looking all over for you. By the way, have the Elric brothers arrived yer?" She seemed _very_ excited about that last part...

"No, mom," Sam answered in deadpan. "They cancelled it. They're inviting the Pokemon voice actor who does the voice of Magicarp instead."

"WHAT?!? You can't be serious," Sam's mother fretted. "They can't do this! I won't stand for it!"

"Mom, I was _kidding_."

"Oh! Phew. So, when are they going to arrive, Samantha?"

Sam shrugged. "I'm not sure. I think..." She bit her lower lip before continuing. "...They're still down at the, uh, Red Lion hotel. Shane is going to drive there and pick them up. Right, Shane?"

The black-haired guy messing with the lighting equipment looked up. "What? Aren't they already – hey!"

Sam had nudged him in the ribs and quickly whispered something into his ear. He nodded.

"Yah, Mrs. Austin. I'm going to go get the van and give them a ride here."

"Shane, I'm no longer 'Mrs. Austin'... It's Miss Jaye. I've recently gotten a divorce with my husband."

"Oh. I'm sorry, Miss Jay. Why, though?"

Sam nudged him in the ribs harder than before. Shane glared at her as if to say, "What!?"

"When I meet Edward Elric," she cooed, "I'm going to woo him with my feminine charms and eventually get him to marry me." There was an evil glint in her hazel eyes, and the tone of her voice had, at the end, sounded a bit... evil.

Sam shuttered.

"Well then, Miss Jaye, I've gotta go pick up the Elric brothers now, so..." Shane started to slowly shuffle his feet towards the door.

"Wait! I'm coming with you, Shane. You may, uh, be sixteen, but, um, teens today drive crazy if you don't keep an eye on them," she said. "Let's go!" With that, Miss Jaye dragged Shane out to the van at such an amazing speed, if she had a built-in speedometer, it would be broken soon.

Sam breathed a sigh of relief. "It's safe to come out now," she called to Ed and Al. "You can see why I had you hide from her. Now, let's get to business."

The brothers nodded.

"So when we announce your names, you walk onto the stage and wave to the crowd. Trust me, they'll love it." Sam pointed to the center of the stage. "We've got a large metal trash bin we'll put up there for you to transmute. Know what you're going to change it to?"

Ed shook his head. "Is there anything in particular you guys want me to transmute it into?"

"Not specifically. Let your imagination go as wild as you want. Anything will make them happy; really." Sam smiled and tucked a loose strand of hair behind her ear. "Then you'll walk offstage when you're done. Sound easy enough?"

"Yah," Ed said. "But about those other events you mentioned earlier, are they –"

"Later," Sam interrupted, shaking her head. "We've only got twenty minutes until it starts. You two can go hang out offstage if you want, but don't go wandering off too far. I've got to go fix the sound equipment." She rolled her eyes. "Jerry keeps having trouble with it, and he doesn't have enough of a brain to figure this stuff out himself. But I'll see you guys later!" Sam smiled and waved as she hurried off.

"Maybe this won't be as bad as I though," Ed said quietly. "What do you think, Al?" When Al didn't answer, Ed turned to where his brother was, only to find him... not there. "Al? Where'd you go?"

"I'm over here, big brother." Al was over chatting with some of the anime con volunteers and signing papers they handed him.

"What are you doing?" Ed asked as he joined his younger brother.

"They wanted me to sign some autographs for them, so I agreed. There's just one left I need to sign." He scribbled his name on a piece of paper and handed it back to the man, who thanked him.

"Ooh!" the volunteers cried. "Can we have your autograph, too, Ed? You're awesome!"

Ed chucked. "Sure, no problem." _Hey, I think I kinda like this_, he thought haughtily.

"Thank you so much!" Then, they ran off to finish up their jobs.

The Elrics spotted Sam rushing towards them, a large grin plastered on her face, her brown eyes sparkling with excitement. "They're coming! It's almost time!"

"Huh?"

"For the opening ceremony. The cosplayers are coming. Now, if you would follow me offstage behind this curtain here, that would be great." The three stood offstage behind some curtains, where they would wait until their names were announced and they were called onstage.

"How long do you suppose it will be until the ceremony starts?" Al asked.

"Probably ten minutes, or, at least, until everyone is in here. Then, you guys will have to wait about fifteen more minutes until you can show them alchemy. And how short you are, Ed," Sam teased.

"WHO ARE YOU CALLING SO SHORT HE CAN'T CLIMB THE STAIRS UP TO THE STAGE?!?" Ed rampaged.

"Big brother!" Al called nervously.

"WHO ARE YOU CALLING A LITTLE PIPSQUEAK, HUH?" He was bonking Sam on the head with his automail arm.

"Whoa! Ow! Sorry! I was just kidding, Ed! Ow! Cut it out!" Sam cried, shielding her head with her arms. "Calm down!"

Ed hesitated a moment, the hard look on his face beginning to soften. "So, about the time," Ed began, obviously trying to change the subject, "What are they going to do for the first fifteen minutes? Al and I haven't been to an anime convention before, so we don't really know what to do then."

"First," Sam began, "They just say welcome to everyone at the convention. They have a short video to show..." Sam ignored the glares from Ed and continued. "...Then they'll tell everyone the rules of the anime convention. After that, you and Al will go out and talk a bit, then perform alchemy for them."

Ed and Al nodded.

"Oh, Samantha!" called a singsong voice through the chattering of entering cosplayers.

"Shoot!" Sam smacked her forehead. "Ed, Al, stay here. I'll be right back." Sam sprinted out to meet her mother and Shane. "Hey!" she called. "What's up?"

"They had already left when we arrived," Sam's mom sulked. "We were told they took a taxi here a little while ago."

"They're here right now, though. Sam just had me drive you over there to – oof!" Poor Shane had yet again been jabbed in the ribs by his friend.

Miss Jaye's eyes widened, and a sly grin crept its way onto her face. "They're already here, you say? Interesting..."

"Yes, but you'll have to wait to talk to Ed and Al, because the opening ceremony is starting now!" Sam jerked a thumb toward the stage, where the announcer was coming out dressed as Mario. Sam rushed off to where the famous Elric brothers were.

"Here it goes!" Sam whispered to them.


End file.
